After all, Laudrup is a man with five La Liga titles and a certain European Cup triumph at Wembley to his name.

But that didn’t stop Britton and Swansea celebrating back then when a wonder goal from Trundle – up there with the best the Millennium has seen – and a late strike from larger than life frontman Bayo Akinfenwa.

Success is all relative, but even Britton accepts – as much as he loved that first final foray – that it is relatively small fry compared to the stage that awaits on Sunday.

“I’m really looking forward to it,” said the Londoner, who has adopted the Liberty as his home.

“I’ve been at the club a long time and seen a lot of ups over the years since I first came.

“The players used to take their own kit home to wash and had to take our own drinks to training as well.

“Some of the lads at Swansea now wouldn’t believe me, but it’s nice to know exactly how far the club has come.

“To get to a final in the club’s centenary year is fantastic and to win it would be incredible – it would be fitting for everybody who has been part of the transformation.”

And yet Britton knows better than most nothing is cut and dried, however sure it seems.

He has lost a final – albeit a play-off one – that Swansea were odds-on favourites to win when Barnsley spoiled Swansea’s return to the Millennium Stadium two months after the LDV win when they won on penalties.

And the playmaker has been on the wrong end of the kind of shocks that Bradford hope to create on Sunday, missing a penalty as Roberto Martinez’s men went out to non-league Havant & Waterlooville in the 2008 FA Cup.

And in a year that has seen the Bantams beat three Premier League sides to reach Sunday’s final and the likes of Oldham, Brentford and Luton’s exploits in the FA Cup, the midfielder who has been in the underdog role most of his career will need no telling of the dangers Bradford provide.

“For some of the lads who’ve been here a long time, the boot was on the other foot five or six years ago,” he said.

“We were the team in League One or League Two trying to beat the teams in the higher divisions.

“And cup results this season have shown that anything can happen on the day, so there’s no way we’ll be complacent against Bradford.

“At the same time, a lot of the boys have played lower-league football so we’ll know what to expect.

“Myself, Monks, Ash, Tatey — we’ve all been at that level and we’re used to the football. It’s tough.

“We’ll know what to expect so, for the lads who might not be so sure of what to expect, we’ll give them a reminder.

“It’s really tough. No matter who you play in the Premier League or the Football League, every game is tough.”

But after the miserable 5-0 away day suffered at the hands of Liverpool last time out, Britton insists extra incentive – if needed – is there for the big one.

“We’re really disappointed about last weekend, but we need to wipe it away and work hard in training this week ahead of the final,” Britton said.

“In terms of defeats, it’s the worst we’ve had in many, many years. I can’t remember the last time we lost 5-0.

“But we can’t dwell on it. We have to wipe it from our memory, get back on the training field and push on.

“We were especially disappointed for the fans; Swansea is a long way away from most Premier League grounds so to do that the week before the cup final is expensive.

“We apologise to them for our performance and we’ll be giving it everything on Sunday.

“We’ve got 30,000 Swansea fans going so we want to make it a happy day for them.”

Next page: View from the Bradford camp

Garry Thompson is one player who will not be overawed in the Capital One Cup final against odds-on favourites Swansea this weekend when Bradford bid to complete one of the biggest upsets in the history of English football.

Phil Parkinson’s npower League Two side have already been labelled the biggest giant-killers of them all after a fairytale journey that has led them to Wembley and into the record books.

Victories over Notts County, Watford, Burton, Wigan and Arsenal, plus a two-legged semi-final triumph over Aston Villa, have seen them become the first club from the bottom tier to reach a major cup final at Wembley.

Cup fever has gripped the city with Bantams fans camping out overnight in the snow last week to snap-up the last remaining tickets – 32,000 will head to Wembley – but Thompson is taking it all in his stride.

The 32-year-old has the benefit of two previous trips to Wembley with former clubs Morecambe, in the Conference play-off final in 2007, and Scunthorpe, in the League One play-off final two years later.

“Swansea are an excellent passing side,” said Thompson. “I think they’ve been compared to Arsenal and obviously having watched Match of the Day and you see some of the goals they score, they are a good footballing team.

“But it’s 11 men versus 11 men and that’s how we look at it.

“We won’t be scared of what they can do, it’s all about what we do on the day.

“We don’t have to say anything about who we’ve beaten to get here to be honest. Everyone knows what we’ve done.

“When you beat Wigan at their place and beat a team like Arsenal and then you go through against Aston Villa over two legs, what bigger hurdle is there to get over? We just need to make sure nerves don’t get the better of us,”

and we go out there and play our football and stay in the game as long as possible.

“There’s no reason why we can’t go there and win.”

Thompson, who was drafted in by boss Parkinson last summer along with nine other players with the sole aim of winning promotion, left his own indelible mark on the competition in the penalty shootout win over Arsenal in the quarter-final.

The midfielder slammed home a volley in the 16th minute from which the Gunners never recovered.

“It’s one of my best moments I think,” said Thompson, who also scored in Morecambe’s Conference play-off final win against Exeter.

“The strength of the Arsenal team on the night was top-end Premier League class and to pop up with a goal was unbelievable.

“It’s my favourite goal that I’ve ever scored and the most important.”

Unlike some of his team-mates though, Thompson would swap it all for guaranteed promotion.

“It will be the pinnacle of my career, definitely.

“I’ve been involved in play-off finals before and luckily enough I’ve come away with a win, but to play in a national cup final will be something that’s unheard of for a League Two club.

“And for me personally, coming from Kendal. Not many people from Kendal get to play in a cup final at Wembley.

“It’s going to be amazing and we aim to soak up all the attention that comes with it and hopefully we can calm ourselves down come four o’clock on Sunday.

“We’re going to have to take more than a couple of deep breaths to get back in the zone and go out and play.

“Our nerves are going to be the biggest challenge.

“But I think I probably would swap it all (for promotion), yes. That’s what we set out to achieve at the start of the season, promotion was the aim.

“The cup run has been absolutely brilliant for the players and Bradford’s fans, to go and have their day out.

“But that’s all it is. It’s a day out and we want to spend the rest of next season in League One.”

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